A new report is recommending that Canada Post phase out daily door-to-door delivery for individual homes.
The Industrial Inquiry Commission has released its final report to Canada Post and the Canadian Union of Postal Workers after hearings held earlier this year into the issues facing Canada Post and the union. The report was shared publicly Friday (May 16).
Commissioner William Kaplan was tasked with examining the current collective bargaining dispute and the positions of Canada Post and the union, specifically looking at: the financial situation of Canada Post, the company's need to diversify or alter its delivery models, the union's negotiated commitments to job security and full-time employment and the need to protect the health and safety of employees.
The report notes that Canada Post is facing an existential crisis and is "effectively insolvent, or bankrupt." The union attributed the financial situation to bad business decisions by Canada Post, but Kaplan didn't fully agree.
He said the reasons are easy to identify: a decline in letter mail as more people chose electronic versions; parcel mail now mostly delivered by competitors; collective agreement work rules that restricted Canada Post from exercising basic management rights such as assigning existing employees additional work when they have finished their assigned tasks; and moratoriums on closing rural post offices and ending community mailbox conversions.
Kaplan said the national strike in 2024 also had an impact, adding the competition is ferocious.
"The recent labour dispute resulted in a further, measurable, and almost certain permanent desertion of long-standing customers who moved their business elsewhere and who have advised Canada Post that they are never coming back."
Kaplan provided seven recommendations, noting they were based on his conclusion that there is a way to preserve Canada Post as a vital national institution.
"If implemented, these changes may return Canada Post to some degree of financial sustainability so it can continue the Universal Service Obligation – for both letter mail and parcels – but in a manner that reflects the 2025 realities of disappearing letter mail and a highly competitive parcel delivery environment."
Kaplan's first recommendation was to amend the Postal Charter. He said it "cannot continue to require impossible-to-meet delivery standards" and daily door-to-door letter mail delivery for individual addressed should be phased out and community mailboxes established wherever it's practical.
However, daily delivery to businesses should be maintained.
Moratoriums on rural post office closures and community mailboxes conversions should be lifted, as there is "no persuasive case for a moratorium on closure of once rural, now urban, post offices." Kaplan said Canada Post already has the Delivery Accommodation Program in place for Canadians who cannot access community mailboxes.
Kaplan's also included recommendations to the collective agreements, as well as amending the "time-consuming approval process" for postage increases.
He said Canada Post and the union need to make changes to their collective agreements. That includes allowing for the flexible use of part-time employees during the week and on weekends, but those jobs should not be "gigified jobs, but good jobs, attractive jobs, with employees who come under the umbrella of the applicable collective agreement."
